1. Field of the Invention The invention relates to a data storage device, more particularly to an expandable function data storage device.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the rapid progress and development of science and technology, the functions of electronic devices are ever more multiplied and diversified, and their data storage and processing capacities have increased tremendously. In addition, the sizes of these electronic devices have decreased steadily, and their prices are also significantly reduced.
Nowadays, a variety of electronic devices are designed and developed to meet the requirements of our daily lives, such as a desktop computer, utilized for business operations and/or personal recreation and entertainment, a notebook computer, personal data assistant (PDA), mobile phone, smart phone, etc, utilized for easy carriage and operation.
Likewise, the volume of data processing incurred by the software used in the operation of these electronic devices also increases enormously. As such, the data storage capacity of a floppy diskette is no longer sufficient to use.
Though a compact disk having a large data storage capacity has subsequently been developed and introduced into the market, yet it is still subject to the shortcomings and disadvantages of being read only but not re-writeable.
As such, a special kind of electronic device called portable disk presently available on market can be utilized to solve the above-mentioned problem.
The size of portable disk is small and is thus easy to carry and operate, and it is provided with a rewritable large capacity memory. Therefore, it can be plugged in and connected to the electronic device such as a notebook computer or desk top computer, to conduct data transmission. The price of such a portable disk is pretty high in early and thus can not be popularized, yet its price is now very much cheaper due to the progress and improvement of the semiconductor manufacturing process. As such this kind of electronic device has become the standard gadget of businessmen and ordinary people.
In the prior art, the various portable disk manufacturing technologies are disclosed in the following Patents: U.S. Pat. No. 6,522,534 (hereinafter referred to as case 534), U.S. Pat. No. 6,744,634 (hereinafter referred to as case 634), U.S. Pat. No. 6,733,329 (hereinafter referred to as case 329), and U.S. Pat. No. 6,763,410 (hereinafter referred to as case 410). These documents are all incorporated herein for reference.
In case 534 is disclosed a pen-cap like mask body, which can be capped onto one end of a portable disk. When the mask body is put on the portable disk, the terminal on the portable disk can thus be shielded and protected. Similar designs are disclosed in case 634 and case 410. In case 410, the design of the mask body is further varied. For example, a connection piece is utilized to connect the mask body and the portable disk, so that when the mask body is detached from the portable disk, it is still connected to one side of the portable disk through the connection piece. In case 329, a similar mask body is utilized to protect the terminal portion. In addition, the terminal portion may be freely detached and replaced. As such, it is suitable to use for the connection ports of various types and specifications.
However, for the portable disks currently available on the market or disclosed in the afore-mentioned patents, it is evident that the protection of the terminal portion is the only function provided by the mask body of the portable disk. The fact is that the dispositions of various electronic elements in the portable disk are fixed and well set during the manufacturing process and thus can not be changed.
Therefore, if additional functions are desired, they have to be made in the product of the next version or next generation. Thus, if there were other means that could be used to enable the user himself to decide any additional functions of the portable disk available to use, that would be indeed a great benefit and convenience for the user.